LONDON — Europe’s muddled response to the migration crisis continued to sow confusion and frustration on Friday, as throngs of asylum seekers poured into Croatia from Serbia even though most border crossings were officially closed, Hungary erected new barriers, and thousands of others sought new gateways into Western Europe.

Croatia, a relatively poor Balkan country that joined the European Union in 2013, had initially signaled that it would allow migrants, barred from entering neighboring Hungary, to pass. But when more than 11,000 people streamed into Croatia on Wednesday and Thursday, the government said it was movin...

I can guarantee you that these scumbags will be at the door of the U.S. any time now, and as the dumbasses that we are, well welcome them all in with open arms and a good deal of these people will be terrorists ISIL included, well have brought them in with our idiotic liberal ideas.

President Tomislav Nikolic of Serbia on Friday railed at members of the bloc for their hypocrisy, selfishness and lack of leadership in the face of the migration crisis. He said it was “absurd” that Serbia respected European standards more than those who are members and who are now “almost out of control — without receiving any criticism, advice, or order from Brussels.”

“The Balkans is an area that has not recovered fully from the wars in the 1990s and the countries of the region remain in limbo in terms of European integration,” said Danilo Turk, former president of Slovenia and a former United Nations assistant secretary general for political affairs.

In a region long plagued by bloody conflicts over land, it is hard enough to police borders where regional rivalries still remain. Slovenia, the first former Yugoslav nation to join the European Union in 2004, and Croatia, which joined in 2013, cannot agree where Croatia ends and Slovenia begins — a dispute that dates to Yugoslavia’s collapse.

The remarks were revealing of the tensions the migrants are now sowing among nations with weak economies, uncertain futures in Europe, creaking welfare states and deep wounds from the past. Those factors are hobbling the region’s ability to respond to a crisis that even richer nations in Europe have struggled to address.

Thousands of migrants gather at a train station in eastern Croatia as the flow of people travelling towards western Europe along the Balkan route shifts towards Croatia. Rough Cut (No reporter narration).

As hundreds of refugees continued to stream into Croatia on Friday, the government announced that it would close its borders with Serbia. Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said his country was overwhelmed, and Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic had a message for the migrants: “Don’t come here anymore. This is not the road to Europe.”

In , hundreds continued to stream in after 14,052 migrants, blocked from entering , arrived over the previous two days. Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said his country was overwhelmed by the influx, and he lashed out at Hungary for what he said was a failure to live up to its obligations as a member of the .

But after gaining independence, countries in the region have struggled to bounce back — the average gross monthly wage in Serbia is 518 euros, about $585, while unemployment hovers at about 18 percent, according to the government statistics office.

Many of them — about 30 busloads — had traveled roughly 300 miles through Serbia, from the southern town of Preshevo, on the border with Macedonia, to Sid, in the north. Many spent the night in the open or in tents, with scant food and water in supply, the Serbian state broadcaster RTS reported.

LONDON — Europe’s to the migration crisis continued to sow confusion and frustration on Friday, as throngs of asylum seekers poured into from even though most border crossings were officially closed, erected , and thousands of others sought new gateways into Western Europe.

Along the roads of eastern on Friday, the migrants’ detritus — abandoned blankets, torn clothing, empty cans of tuna — littered the highways. On the side of a road outside the border town of Tovarnik, Croatia, three young Iraqi men said they had been stranded for two excruciating days.

The migrants have not only been trapped within borders. They were also caught in mass confusion, evidenced by heightening tensions among neighboring nations in a volatile region, incoherent national policies and the continuing failure of greater Europe to resolve the crisis.

Croatia, a Balkan country that joined the in 2013, had initially signaled that it would allow migrants who were barred from entering neighboring Hungary to pass. But after more than 11,000 people streamed into Croatia on Wednesday and Thursday, the government said it was moving to shut the border with Serbia.

More than 17,000 migrants have entered since Wednesday, and were essentially trapped there, having been blocked from , sent packing from and unable to move on to Slovenia. The migrants have become a sloshing tide of humanity, left to flow wherever the region’s conflicting and constantly changing border controls channel them.